The Quintessential Story of You and I
by TheQuintessentialFicWriter
Summary: When an African American student transfers schools overseas, she is more than ready to live the dream of those high school exchange videos she loves. What she didn't count on, was her meddling mother getting her a tutoring gig when she runs into an old colleague whose daughters are failing their classes. She also neglected to mention the fact that his daughters were quintuplets.


**Fic Title:** The Quintessential Story of You and I  
**Series:** The Quintessential Quintuplets/Gotoubun no Hanayome  
**Summary:** When a studious African American student finally has the opportunity to live in Japan when her mother's publishing firm transfers her overseas, she is more than ready for the chance to spend less time studying and more time having a social life. Unfortunately, she didn't take into account her meddling mother to get her a tutoring gig when she runs into an old colleague whose daughters are failing their classes. She also neglected to mention the fact his daughters were quintuplets. Thanks, Mom.  
**Pairing:** Nakano Quintuplets x OC  
**Pen Name:** TheQuintessentialFicWriter

[**REMINDER:** _In this story, the girls all are written to have their canon in-universe hair color which is that all the girls have the exact same hair color which in the colored manga pages looked like a rosy cream color. So there's nothing written about the girls having various hair colors in this. But feel free to imagine them with their aesthetic-purpose hair colors._]

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_**Prologue:** Chance Meeting; A Father's Dilemma_

~.~.~.~.~.

**September 2017**

Nicole Harris let out a pleased sigh as she took a sip from her iced coffee. She may have had her apprehensions about Nagoya in the beginning of her temporary relocation for her firm when she and her daughter arrived in April, but five months down the road in September and Nicole could almost say she was starting to wrap her head around the city sitting in a cafe reviewing her newest assignment.

_[The Uncommon Worker in Japan]_

The title for her latest article read. Her second tab lead to her email where she had been conversing with a colleague, Shusei Hayakawa, whose fluency in English had been a great help as he had been tasked in translating her part in the article. So far, working with the array of characters for Seasonelle at Shiki Publishing had been a treat. Strange at times, but it had been satisfying despite the ever prevailing language barriers between her and a majority of her coworkers.

Now she was on her lunch break and sitting in a Starbucks. As much as Nicole poked her criticisms at capitalism, the woman was a bit thankful she was able to find such a familiar chain from home all the way here in Japan.

_Now about the article… We should really strive to find more foreigner-inhabited areas._ Nicole stared at her screen thoughtfully. If this were Tokyo it would probably be easier, but she worked best when challenged. _So-_ Nicole's train of thought halted at the sound of shuffling papers to her right. There was a flash of white and Nicole realized that the man sitting beside her at the next table had dropped a few papers. "Oh dear."

Nicole set her cup down quickly and scoot back, fast at work to pick up the few sheets that had fallen to the ground.

"Thank you." The man said in perfect English.

Nicole felt relieved. Her Japanese still needed quite a bit of work. "It's no problem at all." She replied warmly, holding his papers out for him to grab. "Here you go, sir." The man's face was stern with short and neat black hair framing his matching black eyes, expression unreadable. Nicole's blinked in surprise at the familiarity. "Oh my, you wouldn't happen to be Maruo Nakano, would you? From Howard University?"

The man set his papers down on his table, a considerable distance away from the edge. "I am." Maruo directed his gaze back to his laptop, typing a few more words before looking back up with a nod. "I'm assuming we're old acquaintances."

Nicole's smile widened, "That we are." She answered, turning her body to face him. "I'm Nicole Harris, we shared a biology class at Howard University."

And Maruo had stood out on campus.

Though Howard hadn't been an HBCU to shy away from non-black students, many gossiped about the Japanese international student that had found his way to their campus. Even within the small demographics of non-black students, Japanese International students were a rarity of their own. Yet Maruo's English had been perfect, transitioning into Howard campus life with ease during his time there. He had been quiet yet efficient and while they didn't interact much due to differences in major, Nicole remembered they had partnered up a few times for partner assignments for Mr. Epps' Biology class.

"It's no problem at all. Thank you for being such a good partner." Maruo had been a great partner. He answered messages when needed and he never shirked duties to be delegated by Nicole herself until she was about ready to pull out her singles. "You haven't changed at all over the years, Maruo." Still serious as ever. "Did medical school work out for you?"

Maruo nodded before pulling out a small card, "I own a hospital now as well as being head doctor."

"That's wonderful!" Nicole took the card, skimming over it. "I'm afraid my Japanese hasn't improved at all, over the years." She had learned French when she was younger and Nicole was still vaguely conversational in the language. Japanese, however? She never thought it would be a language she would need to learn. Now here she was years later in Nagoya of all places. "I'll have to ask my daughter to read it, she's fluent."

"You have a daughter now? Congratulations."

"And a son, actually." Nicole dug into her purse for her clutch. Neatly, she filed the business card among many others then grabbed the polaroid that had been taken not too long ago. "Here's a picture." The photo had been taken about a year ago at Malik's graduation ceremony. Her son's dreadlocks were smushed under his cap as he grinned, holding a 'L for Loser' over his sister's head as she barely managed to hold bunny ears behind his. "Malik is my oldest at nineteen," the woman remarked proudly. "Nalani is seventeen. She's here with me while Malik is attending university at home, so my husband stayed behind."

Maruo nodded once more, "Why are you here in Japan? Business meeting?"

Nicole shook her head, "The publishing firm I work for has a sister firm here in Nagoya." She answered. "I'm here as a representative. My daughter begged to come with me and finish her schooling here. She's always been a fan of the culture and spent years learning the language, so I relented since this would be a great opportunity to write about in personal essay assignments from universities. She's got a good head on her shoulders."

"Is she aspiring to attend Howard?"

"I hope so." It had been where Nicole had made so many fond memories, after all. Where she met her husband. Where she forged many long lasting friendships that had been maintained to this day. "But I'll support any choice of a university as long as its accredited and has great history. But enough about me and my family." Nicole placed the picture back into her clutch and looked back at her companion. "What about you? Have you settled down over the years?" Running a successful hospital was quite the feat, but Nicole firmly believed it was the small things that mattered like having family to go home to after a hard day of work.

Maruo intertwined his fingers together, "My wife passed away five years ago leaving me with her children from a previous marriage."

Nicole rose a hand to her mouth in surprise. "I am so sorry for your loss." She sympathized.

He nodded at her once more and despite his unchanging expression, Nicole was sure it had been one of appreciation."I care for them as if they're my own, so I do what I can as their father to support them." Maruo continued on, his expression seemed to darken as he paused.

Nicole hesitated before asking, "Is something troubling you?"

Maruo eyed his laptop for a few moments, "In order to avoid my daughters being expelled, I'm transferring them to Maki High School in the area once their prep work has been done. Their previous school had a strict policy with not being flexible with failing students but thankfully the headmaster and I were able to work out an arrangement to send my daughters to a school run by an old colleague of theirs."

"I see…" Nicole muttered. "My daughter is attending that school as well." Nicole suddenly felt a wave of gratefulness that her children had always been academically gifted. "I hope it works out for you, perhaps they need tutors." A light bulb suddenly seemed to ding over Nicole's head at the thought. "I know! My daughter can tutor them! Nalani has always been at the top of her class since she was very young and has helped classmates with studying from time to time in large study groups. If anyone can help your girls, Nalani is up for the task." Maruo didn't answer, so Nicole continued. "My daughter has been attending Maki High School since April so she's still quite new herself, but adjusted well enough to her surroundings. Our children could be friends."

"And you're confident in your daughter's abilities?" Maruo finally responded with a question.

Nicole smiled proudly, "Very. She's a brilliant student." She quickly added, "And she's fluent in the language in all three aspects of reading, listening, and speaking."

Maruo closed his eyes in thought, "I see. I suppose I'll give her a shot since I want my daughters to succeed in graduating. They should be ready to attend their new school in a few days." He opened his eyes again. "I'll, of course, compensate your daughter monetarily for tutoring my children."

_Even better!_

Nicole had been worried taking Nalani to Nagoya with her despite her insistent begging to be brought along. Even with fluency in the language, there was no guarantee that she'd be able to make friends as readily in Japan as she would in their home country. Now she would get paid and make friends at the same time as strengthening her academic abilities. To truly learn a subject, you must be able to teach it to others. "I'll let my daughter know right now." Nicole chirped, picking her phone up once more to send a text. "How many daughters do you have? Two?"

Maruo instead answered Nicole's question with a proposition of his own, "Miss Nicole, I have a favor to ask."

Nicole halted before she could unlock her phone, "Yes?"

"Please do not alert your daughter as to how many daughters I have, I want to see if she'll be able to commit herself to helping them even when she finds out it's more than two."

Nicole raised an eyebrow, "And just how many daughters _do_ you have?"

Silently, Maruo picked up his own phone and presumably looked for an image that contained his children. When he found what he deemed a worthy photo, he turned his phone horizontally and rotated it around for Nicole to see.

Her eyes widened.

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_**Author's Note**_

And guess who is back and writing up a storm, folks? Me. In a rewrite of the prologue.

I didn't mean for my comeback to writing this story to take so long, let alone, imagine that I was gonna jump back in with first rewriting my originally uploaded chapters. But I think the break was really needed after some troubles with work and just needing a break from everything. So I decided that during my downtime, the best thing to do while I couldn't work up the drive to write was reread the manga since I was able to get my hands on the official English releases. And during that time, I found that I kinda scrounged up the timeline in which our story starts which is pretty important considering the first real major arc of the story we get (Fireworks) and the subsequent weather effects.

So I decided that when I finally was gonna make my comeback to the site, the first thing I would do is rectify that medium-sized blunder and continue on with making chapters. So here we are with Take 2 of our prologue. This time around, I established the month in which the journey starts for our protagonists and decided to elaborate a bit more on Nalani's mother and her career. I hope the changes are well-received as I think as a whole, this is going to make things easier for me down the line when I get further into the story. I'm looking very forward to what will be happening with our new protagonist and her journey with the Nakano Sisters and the eventual wedding day (and the mystery of who the bride shall be).

Also, did anyone catch the references I made in the chapter? If you're a fan of the Voltage Inc. otome games, then you'll recognize that the company name and Nicole's colleague that translates her articles are both from one of their games, Our Two Bedroom Story. Sure in the original game the firm is located in Tokyo but... writer's choice? I thought it would be a fun thing to add to the story instead of completely coming up with something new and giving myself a small handicap. Plus, I love making my references.


End file.
